The question is in the title.

(03-11-2024 01:02 PM)andybible1995 Wrote:  The question is in the title.

From an esteemed member of a power conference to the now defunct WAC, to CUSA, to the AAC, Rice has been whipped around pretty good.

Lost a budding rivalry with Marshall. Got a nice couple years of increased distributions from exit penalties from the leavers (so far the difference is almost 9 million dollars). Actually have a better media deal now than pre-realignment. General apathy towards athletics from being "left behind" is real and sucks. Also there is a strong chance that CUSA will keep adding more FCS programs and we get lost a sea of call ups that we have spent the last 15+ years trying to separate ourselves from.

(03-11-2024 01:06 PM)loki_the_bubba Wrote:  

(03-11-2024 01:02 PM)andybible1995 Wrote:  The question is in the title.

From an esteemed member of a power conference to the now defunct WAC, to CUSA, to the AAC, Rice has been whipped around pretty good.

It is the monkey paw price for going 3-0 vs. Alabama.

New Mexico State has been punted around, left behind, and then finally picked up again. It's been a tumultuous time that has finally resulted in NMSU finding a permanent home.

UAA was a member of the PacWest in the past. However, many northwestern schools broke away to create the GNAC. From there, UAA has more or less found a home (though some new schools have since joined and some have left). As far as hockey is concerned, UAA was a member of the WCHA prior to the Big Ten sponsoring hockey. When this happened, UAA remained in the WCHA when that game of musical chairs ended. But it didn't stop the other WCHA members from leaving UAA (UAF and UAH too) out in the cold while they recreated the CCHA. Now UAA is a Division 1 hockey school as an independent.

Ups and downs. From CUSA to Big East (great), back to AAC then to B12.

(03-11-2024 01:16 PM)mlb Wrote:  Ups and downs. From CUSA to Big East (great), back to AAC then to B12.

UCF has greatly benefited from realignment. Started in Div III, FBS in 1996, Big 12 today.

UCF Affiliation Timeline:
NCAA Division III independent (1979–1981)
NCAA Division II independent (1982–1989)
NCAA Division I-AA independent (1990–1995)
NCAA Division I-A independent (1996–2001)
Mid-American Conference (2002–2004)
Conference USA (2005–2012)
American Athletic Conference (2013–2022)
Big 12 Conference (2023–present)

Love Realignment, keep the ball rolling!

All of our rivals left us and now we play a collection of schools that we, mostly, have no connection or history with. We, more or less, were in a conference with the following schools for 20-50 years in some shape or form:

Louisville
Cincy
St Louis
Tulane
St Louis
Southern Miss
Houston
East Carolina

and with significant histories with:

Tulsa
Florida State(specifically on the basketball side)
Marquette
DePaul

Of those schools, we really only play Tulane, ECU, and Tulsa anymore. And nothing against those programs but of those 12 programs I mentioned, those 3 were probably the one's we didn't really circle when the schedule came out.

ND football: Independent (except for 2020) 1887-present.

ND Hockey: Independent 1968-71; WCHA 1971-80; CCHA 1981-2013; Hockey East 2014-17; Big Ten 2018-present.

Basketball: Independent 1896-1995; Big East 1996-2013; ACC 2014-present.

Baseball : Independent 1892-1982; Midwest City Conference 1983-85; Midwestern Collegiate Conference 1986-1995; Big East 1996-2013; ACC 2014-present.

Goodness.

The SWC collapse blindsided Houston. It almost killed the program during a time the football program was on probation and the football (Kim Helton) and basketball (Alvin Brooks) coaches were awful.

Houston turned down a chance to go to the WAC with TCU, SMU and Rice, and instead forged a path with Louisville and Cincinnati et al in forming Conference USA.

When the MWC split off from the WAC and TCU, Rice and SMU were left behind, that looked like a great decision.

Then we suffered through the Big East raid of CUSA in 2003 which also saw Army (to Indy) and TCU (to MWC) depart.

We really began building our program back in the watered down CUSA with Art Briles and Kevin Sumlin in football and Tom Penders in basketball. This culmninated in a glorious 13-1 season in 2011 with Case Keenum which led to a student referendum in favor of a stadium fee to build a new football stadium.

The Big East came calling and that lasted a few months until the basketball schools pulled out. Houston then helped form a second brand new conference called the American.

Football carried the day early in the American with Tom Herman at the helm, then basketball picked up the torch with Kelvin Sampson (who demanded and got a new basketball arena and practice facility).

Texas and OU's departure opened up a spot in the Big 12 for Houston that almost did not happen. We had to twist a few arms politically and I'm pretty sure we weren't the first, second or third choice.

Thank the lord everything worked out and we can now play in a league at the highest levels with several historical and geographical rivals.

DII Gulf South
FCS moved around to several from Southland to ASUN
FBS CUSA
I like our collection of schools in CUSA. Being a recent FCS team, I would rather be among new FBS teams wanting to move up than old ones who have settled.

As an Alabama fan, I am about to lose annual games against Ole Miss and Mississippi State. That sucks. So too does losing the natural new rivalry that came with Texas A&M. Everything else is about the same.

As a Villanova fan, I lost rivals in Syracuse and Boston College -- along with UConn for a bit. Xavier, Marquette, and Creighton haven't necessarily made up for losing those stalwarts, but on whole I'd take the current Big East over the 1997 iteration with Rutgers, Virginia Tech, and Miami.

Villanova is in as good a place as we could be.

Alabama is in as good a place as we could be -- though I'd still prefer 14 rather than 16 just for the sake of rivalries.

Vanderbilt: The SEC's adding Missouri and Texas A&M made VU's challenges more daunting. Now with Texas and Oklahoma coming on board ... help us (though in baseball and women's hoops we should be fine).

Memphis: For years, Memphis was aligned in a league with either Louisville or Cincinnati (or both). To lose those two rivals has been rough. Memphis offers a "major to high-major" men's basketball program by most metrics (attendance, coaching history, budget, NCAA/NIT wins, pro players produced, etc.). But because the AAC is perceived by most as a "mid-major" in men's hoops, Memphis is being indirectly and negatively impacted.

DePaul: The Blue Demon athletics program is exactly where it needs to be with this current iteration of the Big East. A perfect fit for DePaul (though many Big East fans would contend a bad fit for the league due to DU horrendous men's hoops).

North Carolina: As long as UNC is affiliated in a league with Duke and N.C. State, I'm pleased. The ACC additions seemingly have not negatively or positively impacted Carolina.

Belmont: As I've posted previously, I'm thrilled the Bruin athletics program (and the school specifically) is now aligned with the Missouri Valley Conference. I strongly disliked the OVC for BU membership

Indiana and Cincinnati (for which I loosely cheer as my brother is a graduate of both IU and UC): HUGE for Cincy to be a part of the Big 12. And I like UCLA joining the Big Ten for men's hoops/Hoosier purposes.

Been a mixed bag for my team. Houston was on the short end of the stick when it came to realignment having been a left behind when the SWC collapsed. As Ive mentioned before, I hated the fact we didnt even try to rebuild the SWC, and then didnt follow what was left of the SWC to the WAC---instead, we joined up in a newly forming basketball centric CUSA. Of the three options---(rebuiolding the SWC, following the other SWC leftovers to the WAC, or CUSA), CUSA was my least preferred option. That said, we probably would have ended up in CUSA regardless as the WAC fell apart just a few years later. Finally got the opportunity to move to a BCS "Automatic Qualifier" conference when Houston was invited to the Big East in 2011. The joy was short lived as we watched the conference collapse--falling from a "power conference" into a G5 ranks as the renamed AAC (all before we could even begin Big East play). Heck--for a while it was a question as to whether the league would even exist when we were set to play our first game in 2013. Still, despite the tribulations, for whatever reason, I really enjoyed our time in the AAC and having some success battling for conference respect made it a fairly entertaining decade or so.

My school was incredibly lucky to get a seat on what may be the last chopper out of Saigon (or one of the last few for sure) when we got a Big12 invite in 2021. Thought we had finally made it---only to find the fight to stay on the right side of the dividing line is still going strong and my team remains at risk. Its a crazy world out there. What I can say is for the first time since the SWC days, Im very content with playing games against the schools in my conference. Sure, I wish Texas and Aggie were still here, but this is probably as close to the something like the old SWC as I am likely to see in the foreseeable future. So yeah---Im content....but how long the B12 can survive and maintain its current status is less clear....so call me---content---but uneasy.

Realignment hasn't been what's killed UMass sports so far. That's been UMass itself. Just constantly shooting our feet on a near daily basis.

We'll see how this MAC move works out for us, so check back in a few years.

My undergrad is a D-III school in the ASC which is down to 5 schools. We’ll see.

Negatively.


Well - positively, then negatively, then positively, and then negatively if we're going to be historical about it.

We've been good no matter where we've been.

Went from ~ top 20 program in revenues to more like a top 5 program. More wins than we had in the 2000s, but fewer than we had in the 90s, at least in football. In other sports, all that money has made a big difference and we're generally more successful across the board now. Kyle Field is much bigger and more full. We still never play Georgia.